


My House is Not My Home - You Are

by imdeansgirl



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/F, Fluff, Harry Potter References, Hogwarts, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-01
Updated: 2015-05-01
Packaged: 2018-03-26 14:25:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3854047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imdeansgirl/pseuds/imdeansgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The stars twinkling overhead shine onto the lake like lanterns. On one side, Kevin Tran sits, alone, staring dejectedly at his sandwich. All of his friends are late. Yet again</p>
            </blockquote>





	My House is Not My Home - You Are

The stars twinkling overhead shine onto the lake like lanterns. Somewhere below the surface, the Giant Squid surely bobs through the water, searching for its next meal. On one side, closest to the towering school, a Hufflepuff girl and her Gryffindor friend make ripples with various spells. On the other, closer to the forest, a picnic blanket lays by the riverside. Kevin Tran sits, alone, staring dejectedly at his sandwich. All of his friends are late. Yet again.

Kevin seems to be the only one ever on time. Even his roommate and best friend, flighty fellow Ravenclaw Castiel, has not appeared yet, leaving Kevin to try his hardest to communicate with the squid below the water telepathically. (Not that he believes he actually can, but it’s always nice to try.) Usually he only sits there doing this for five minutes or so before someone shows up. (Almost always Jess, wrapped head to toe in her house’s black and gold colors. Fellow Hufflepuff Dean and his boyfriend, the aforementioned Castiel, usually follow suit, and then Anna and Jo, Gryffindor tower’s favorite couple.) But at this point, he’s been sitting here for ten minutes. The picnic is beginning to get soggy from the misty air, and clouds are gathering overhead. Once he reaches the fifteen minute mark, thunder begins tearing through the skies at an alarming rate. At thirty, the clouds open up and it begins to pour. 

He heads back inside.

Once he reaches the dorm, it’s only to find Castiel hanging off the back of his bed, a contemplating and distressed look on his face. The kind part of Kevin wants to ask what is wrong, to soothe his friend. The other part, however, wants to silently glower from his own bed. This is the part that wins. 

Wordlessly, he climbs onto his blue and gold sheets, and stares disapprovingly at the bed next to his. Castiel doesn’t even seem to notice. If anything, he’s registered Kevin’s mere presence, but ignored the sharp air of anger and betrayal about them. They sit like this for a while, until eventually Kevin gives up on staring and hauls out a Muggle romance novel he rented from the school’s library. He gets to about the fifteenth page when Castiel mutters something, too quiet for keen ears to pick up on.

“What’s that?” Kevin snaps. While he did get lost in the book, he didn’t forget his anger, and it picks right back up when Castiel finally deems his presence worthy of comment.

“Dean’s graduating,” he says, a little louder now.

It’s true. Dean is a year older than them, as are Jo and Anna. Anna—Castiel’s older sister—is the one who introduced them to Dean, Jess, and Jo. She’s also the one who convinced Dean and Castiel to start seeing each other. Anna has taken to Kevin like an older sister as well, and as much as it pains him to see them go, he’s accepted it as another fact of life he has to face at one point or another.

However, Castiel is not the kind of rational Ravenclaw Kevin is. He is creative, fiery, and hungry for knowledge. But he is anything but rational. This must be hard for him, for his boyfriend to leave him behind, if he hasn’t already processed it. “Yes,” Kevin agrees. “That’s true.” 

“How will we survive without them, Kevin? They’re our best friends.”

Kevin sighs and shrugs. “Sometimes if you love something, you must let it go.”

For some odd reason, that comment makes Castiel chuckle. “Right,” he says with a smile, glancing in Kevin’s direction. It’s then that his eyebrows furrow. “Why are you all wet? Were you outside?” Kevin gives him a dead stare, until, after a long pause, eventually Castiel’s eyes widen. “Oh, Kevin—I’m so sorry. We were on the pitch, and Jo and Dean were playing a game of Quidditch. We didn’t even think—“

“That’s right. You didn’t.” And with that, he picks up his wand and draws the curtains closed, signifying the end of the discussion.

~-~

It turns out that that incident is just the beginning. As his friends prepare for graduation, they begin to forget about all their regular activities—picnics by the lake, Quidditch games regularly. Dean, Anna, and Jo are all in a dizzying panic over their final exams and what they want to do when they leave school. Castiel is worrying with them—both his sister and boyfriend are leaving school and leaving him, and he’s unable to deal with what effects may come after.

The only one who seems to make time for him is Jess. She often goes on walks with him, teases him about his impressive grades. They often go to the library and sit in each section for hours on end, Jess making conversation about her favorite books and Kevin reading passages to her from Muggle authors she’s never heard of. (“Shakespeare was a Muggle playwright,” he explains one day, trailing the spine of _Othello_ with his index finger. “Was he any good?” she asks. His only intelligent response is: “Bloody brilliant.”) She’s perfectly lovely company.

The one place they never really go is the Quidditch pitch. Neither of them are really any good at the game; they were far more partial to watching rather than playing, and since their friends have ceased to play unless school sanctioned, there’s really no point in being there. 

Some days, however, they will wander across it anyway. It’s one of those days; lunch has just ended and their friends have scattered. It’s a long and lazy Saturday, so they have prepared to wander the grounds until dinner. They’re walking past the Quidditch field when they hear a panicked “Look out!” and a quaffle whips past Kevin’s head.

It lands on the ground a few feet away. Both Kevin and Jess just stare at it, their eyes wide as they take in the sports ball. Jess reaches for Kevin’s hand and squeezes it; she’s spooked by the slightest things, and this seems to have done it. He glances towards the pitch, and two brooms are floating down towards them. When the players land, it’s revealed to be two Slytherins; one, a girl, with flowing black hair and big brown eyes, who gives them a smirk and immediately reaches for the ball. The other is a boy, with floppy brown hair and a wide, sheepish smile. As they land, the boy stands close to them, and he is overwhelmed with the smell of peppermint and broom polish. “Sorry about that,” he says. “Didn’t mean to scare you folks off your date. Things just get kind of wild on the pitch.”

Jess corrects him, “We’re not dating,” just at the same time Kevin asks, “Is your aim always that bad?”

He gets an elbow in the ribs from Jess, but the Slytherin boy snickers, flashing his big dimples once again. They’re the kind of dimples that make Kevin want to either smile back or eat him alive. He isn’t sure which yet. “No,” he answers, as the girl reappears beside him. “That was Garth’s hit. And besides, Ruby was the one who was supposed to catch it. I just came down with her to make sure she didn’t act completely socially awkward.”

“I’m not completely socially awkward,” the girl mutters, before flashing them a slick and sly grin. “I’m Ruby,” she tells them. She shakes their hands; Jess first, then Kevin.

“I’m Jess,” Jess answers, “and this is—“

Ruby cuts her off before she gets the chance to finish. “I know who you are,” she declares, beaming proudly now as she shakes his hand. Her grip is firm and ice cold. “You’re Kevin Tran.” She nudges the boy next to her and points at him, as if he can’t see or hear her. “This is _Kevin Tran,_ ” she reiterates. “Highest grades in our year? Meg talks about him all the time.”

He raises his eyebrows to a point high on his forehead. “Meg?” he asks. “You all know Meg Masters?”

Inelegantly, Ruby snorts and leans on her broom. “Know her? That’s my twin sister. She doesn’t shut up about how high your grades are. She’s totally jealous of you, by the way.” When he raises his eyebrows even higher, she lifts her own, unimpressed. “What? You thought yours was the only group of mixed houses?”

He never really thought about it before. But as he looks closely at the Quidditch players, he recognizes that not all of them are Slytherin. There’s a fair few Hufflepuffs, Gryffindors, and Ravenclaws as well—his own dorm mate, Ezekiel, hovers high above the ground with a scrawny Hufflepuff boy, both looking down concerned at the four students to the side of the pitch.

A pair of fingers snap next to his ear. “Hello? Earth to Tran?” He comes back to the conversation as the girl—Ruby—calls his name. As Kevin’s ears surely burn red, the boy chuckles and Ruby rolls her overly large eyes. Now that he examines her, he can see the similarities between her and Meg: the sarcasm, the brown eyes (that roll far too often), the dark hair, and the fair skin. They’re not identical, but twins, yes.

“Do you practice out here often?” Jess asks. She’s politely making conversation, which is kind, as it was beginning to get awkward.

The boy shrugs. “Every Saturday,” he says, “at around three. If, you know, you ever want to come.”

Kevin feels his own eyes widen at that. “Us?” he asks.

Chuckling, the Slytherin nods. “Yes, you, Kevin Tran. Oh, by the way.” He sticks out his hand. “Sam Winchester.”

Instead of shaking, though, they gape at him. “Winchester?” Jess asks. “As in—?”

“Dean?” Sam asks, rolling his eyes. “Yes. Wasn’t aware you knew him. He’s my older brother, only by a year though.” He smiles as they both reach out to shake his hand. “Sam, sorted into Slytherin, wants to work for the Ministry. The family disappointment.”

Kevin knows that feeling well. The one specially selected to go to a wizarding school from a family full of straight-laced conservatives is no stranger to the concept of a family disappointment. He’s well aware of the cold glares his grandmother gives him at Thanksgiving dinners, and of the whispers cousins Lennie and Chandler exchange behind his back. He turns up his nose and saunters away, too good to be tempted to practice magic outside of school—no matter how good his excuse may be.

Sam continues, watching as Ruby tosses the ball up and down in the air. “My mother is a pureblood Gryffindor, my father a Muggleborn. They were in the same year and house. It was meant to be.” He gives Kevin a bright, infectious smile, to which Kevin finds himself grinning back. “So it was no surprise when their son turned out to be a Slytherin that my father went nutty.” He shrugs and intercepts on Ruby’s game of catch, smoothly swiping the ball from her fingers. “Oh well. Mum’d be proud, I think.” He turns back and tosses the ball in their direction. Kevin fumbles a little, but catches it. Sam smirks. “So, do you want to hang around and play?”

Jess eyes the ball warily. Their friends had never asked them to play before, and with good reason. Jess is practically incapable of riding, and Kevin can’t catch a ball for his life. But he finds himself nodding anyway. “Sure. Why not?”

Sam’s responding grin almost tears his whole face in two.

~-~

After that, Jess and Kevin spend most days on the Quidditch pitch. Mostly they sit in the bleachers, with Slytherins Bela Talbot and Gabriel Speight, and Hufflepuff Chuck Shirley. Both Chuck and Garth are from their year, and Jess recognizes them from around the common room. Gabriel is a year older, graduating soon but not seeming to be very worried; Bela is a year younger, and claims that fifth year is harder than all of the others combined.

Sam and Ruby are also in their year, and the more he looks for them, the more he begins picking them out in his classes with the Slytherins. They’re always sat together, and more often than not, Ruby charms Sam’s school supplies into dancing or falling off of the desk for her own entertainment. Sam rolls his eyes and either lets her do as she pleases or ignores her entirely. Or, as a third option, he grins his favorite dopey grin, crinkled nose and all, and does funny things to Kevin’s organs as his heart stutters and his stomach twists and his eyes fall out of his head and his brain shatters into a million pieces. Sam Winchester is the most gorgeous person he’s ever seen, and he only ever smiles that way with Ruby or on the Quidditch pitch, his bright white teeth glinting in the sunlight as he passes the quaffle. He’s also smiled like that for Kevin—but not nearly as much as Ruby.

To the observant eye, they almost seem as if they’re dating. And Kevin has a very observant eye. They may very well be dating, he can’t be sure. They shuffle close together during Potions class; they copy off of each other in Charms. Kevin has been around couples a very long time—Anna and Jo got together during his second year, and Dean and Castiel have dated since his fifth. These are certainly things they would do with each other. 

In order to determine the truth, he sets up a scientific experiment. He begins with step one of the scientific method he learned while still at Muggle school, the asking of a question: Are Ruby and Sam dating? At step two, he states a hypothesis: Sam and Ruby are indeed dating, the perfect Slytherin couple. 

Step three: conduct an experiment.

This opportunity happens to fall upon him in Potions class. They’re brewing Amortentia, a powerful love potion that allows you to smell what attracts you most. Mr. Roche, their potions teacher and head of Slytherin house, has told them that they have to pair up with a member of the opposite house today, because… Kevin isn’t quite sure why. He thinks there’s a speech made about interhouse unity, but he isn’t listening as he stares at the back of Sam’s head and silently begs for him to turn around.

From beside him, Castiel mutters something badmouthing Slytherins before he wanders around for anyone without a partner. A few moments later, Sam turns, all looming and tall with bright smiles and kind eyes, and beams at Kevin. “Kevin Tran,” he says. “Partners?”

Kevin cannot help but agree.

He and Sam work well together; they function melodiously, both working hard to do exactly what they need to without bothering the other. They follow the looped instructions from Sam’s notebook to the letter, cross every ‘t’ and dot every ‘i’ exactly as it needs to be done. Unfortunately (or, perhaps rather fortunately), theirs is not the first done, but a very close second. Ruby and Meg finish theirs first, and Mr. Roche instructs them to list what they smell within the cauldron. Meg smells burning wood and chocolate, warmness on a winter’s night.

Ruby does not smell Sam, as Kevin expects her to. She smells fruity perfume, flowers, and fresh pressed clothing. These are definitely not things Sam smells of. Silently, he’s thankful.

Step four is to analyze the results of the experiment. Ruby did not smell Sam, so this most likely means she is not attracted to Sam, which is good, he supposes. If she is not attracted to him, they couldn’t possibly be dating. Could they? Ruby is most likely attracted to someone else—unless Sam smells differently when he isn’t around Kevin. In which case…

As he is with so many things, he is so deeply in tune with analyzing the results, he does not notice Mr. Roche calling his name at first. He comes back to the classroom quickly; everyone is staring at him, Sam with wide eyes, Mr. Roche unimpressed. He shakes his head and asks, “I’m sorry. Can you repeat that?”

“So nice of you to join us, Mister Tran.” This remark earns giggles from the Slytherin girls a few tables away. Sam glares at them, and they quiet. “I was just asking you to list what you smell in your remarkably well-colored potion.”

Kevin nods amiably and leans over the cauldron, letting the scent fill his nose and double him over. “I smell…” He whiffs again, breathing deeply as if to capture the smell and not to let it go. “… Mint,” he says eventually, sniffling again. “And broom polish. And I think the third is… body wash, of some sort. Woodsy. Very strong.”

When he pulls away eventually, leaving him feeling empty, he looks up to find everyone staring at him with what looks like incredulity. Sam looks astonished, his eyes wide and without the crinkles of a smile, and it is then that Kevin realizes he’d just described Sam’s scent, and he is so lucky that class is over as he gathers his things and bolts out of the room.

~-~

By the time he returns to the dorm, exhausted from the amount of avoiding people he had done (Ruby and Sam, mostly) there was a note on his bed, lying on his pillow. It read very simply:

_I smelled you, too. You smell like apples, coffee, and fresh ink. Come see me tomorrow at the pitch. Around 1:00?  
\- Sam xx_

Positively giddy, he tucks the note onto the table by his bedside. _Step five,_ he thinks, fiddling with the note, _is to draw a conclusion._ Sam and Ruby are not dating after all. “What’s that?” someone behind him asks. It’s Castiel, looking wide-eyed and hopeful.

He huffs. “Nothing,” he snips. He knows he’s being downright childish, but Castiel needs to know he is yet to be forgiven.

Castiel sighs and unfolds himself from where he’s been standing at the doorway. “I’m so sorry we’ve acted this way,” he says, and he sounds sincere. “We didn’t mean to totally...” He waves his hand in a large, vague gesture.

“Become pricks?” Kevin suggests.

At that, Castiel’s face twists, but he snickers. “Yes.” He sighs, and squares his shoulders before crossing to Kevin’s bed and sitting down, his long legs hitting the floor with a thud from the short bed. “Is there any way you’d forgive us?”

Kevin thinks. And Castiel’s face looks so crestfallen, so sad, that his resolve crumbles. “Never be late to any picnics again.”

Castiel beams. “Agreed.”

~-~

As punctual as always, Kevin arrives at the Quidditch pitch at 1:00 sharp. Sam is there already, floating high above the stands as he tosses a ball up in the air and catches it. Kevin patiently waits until Sam lands, ball under one arm and broom under the other. “So,” he says, as Sam approaches from where he landed. “I heard I smell like apples?”

“And ink,” Sam adds. “And coffee. I love coffee.”

Kevin lifts an eyebrow and snorts. “Bet you do.”

Truth be told, Sam looks so honest when he says, “Yeah, I do,” that it takes all the willpower he has not to lean forward and brush their lips together right then. But he settles for shrugging instead, because he doesn’t think he can speak without falling over his own words in the process.

Seeming to take this indifferent shrug as a good sign, Sam beams, and adds, “But I like you better,” and leans forward first, and delivers a kiss that would put all Muggle romance novels to shame.

~-~

The sun shines down brightly over the lake’s water. Somewhere below the surface, the squid happily munches on a sandwich two Ravenclaw boys have just thrown in. Exams are over, so many students have taken to the grounds, lounging about on the lake’s edges or in the forest beyond.

On the trail on the way to the lake, Kevin Tran is laughing as his boyfriend laps at his neck. “We’re running late,” he mumbles, nudging Sam with his elbow. “And all this bending can’t be good for your back.”

They wouldn’t be running so late if Sam didn’t keep stopping to kiss, touch, or nip at him, but Kevin is not complaining. “No one’s ever on time anyway,” Sam responds, the words burning into Kevin’s already hot skin as his mouth moves against the crook of his neck. “And you could always come up here to me, if you’re that worried about my physical health.”

Kevin sticks his tongue out and drags Sam forward, intertwining their fingers as he drags them along. Sam whines and drags his feet, but when they arrive, everyone else is there. No one says a word about their tardiness.

Instead, they plop down onto the picnic blanket, in between Dean and Jess—Dean, who has one arm around Sam and one around Castiel, and Jess, who is making Jo a crown made of flowers. Ruby and Anna are making jokes around bites of sandwiches, rather loudly in fact, but Kevin can still make out Dean mumbling, “Glad to have you around, little brother.” And Sam looks so happy in that moment, Kevin cannot help but to squeeze their intertwined fingers. He silently thanks the Giant Squid, and Jess, and flying quaffles, and Mr. Roche, as they’ve all worked hard to bring him to this exact moment, when he feels like his heart is exploding in his chest and his whole body is on fire. They’ve worked so hard to bring him home.


End file.
